


Return

by Opalgirl



Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: AU, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-30
Updated: 2010-05-30
Packaged: 2017-10-15 08:51:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/159143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Opalgirl/pseuds/Opalgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU after about the halfway point of Emperor Mage. Princess Kalasin travels to Carthak to marry Emperor Ozorne, and the Emperor sees a familiar face among her retinue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Return

“Your Royal Highness.” Ozorne takes the trembling hand and meets the girl's gaze. Her eyes are a vivid blue, showing her fear plainly. “Your royal parents honor us.” She is but a child of eleven; she should be afraid. He would be concerned if she were not.

The princess curtsies and murmurs something and over the child's head, Ozorne sees a familiar face among the royal retinue, an unexpected one.

“Veralidaine,” he says, approaching her in the banquet hall. She looks just as she did; fair-skinned and slender, her hair in permanent disarray.

She turns to face him with a rustle of silk. “Your Imperial Majesty.” She curtsies, but when she looks up at him, her eyes are cold. She is no longer intrigued by him.

“I was rather surprised to see that you had returned.”

She does not smile. “I was asked to accompany Her Royal Highness, but I'm not to stay.”

“Unfortunate. My offer still stands if you would make your home here.” He offers his arm to her.

“Your Majesty is too kind, but my home is in Tortall.” This is not the young girl who first arrived in Carthak, to be awed by the wealth and power—and him. This is a young woman, one who is wise to him.

 _Draper_ , he realizes, and curses the—noticeably absent—man soundly. “And your master?”

Her eyes flicker with cold dislike, openly. “He wasn't fool enough to return.”


End file.
